German Sales Point to Future Growth Potential in Australia

If you’re wondering why bicycle factories cannot produce enough bikes, parts and accessories to keep up with both Australian and global demand, a look at the 2020 sales figures of just one country, Germany, will help to explain why. 

Germany’s cycling market is the largest in Europe. Its total market value is approaching €10 billion (A$15.4 billion) in retail sales per year. 

In total, Germany’s bicycle sales of all kinds rose 16.9% for 2020 compared to 2019, reaching 5.04 million sold. 

But volume is only part of the story. Because of a huge surge in ebikes, bicycle sales value increased 60.0% to €6.44 billion (A$9.9 billion). 

As a portion of the total bike sales marketplace, electric bikes took a 38.7% market share by volume at 1.95 million units. Year-on-year, that figure represents a 43.4% growth. Given the higher unit value of ebikes, they would now be by far the biggest sales category in terms of sales value. 

The average sales price for bikes in the German market is now €1,279 (A$1,969), a figure that has risen steadily in line with the higher proportion of electric bike sales. 

Gaining popularity as both a personal use and commercial vehicle, the e-cargo bike tallied 78,000 sales in 2020, up 40% from 54,400 in 2019, according to transport organisation and data collector ZIV. Meanwhile sales of non e-powered cargo bikes, were 25,200 units sold in 2020, compared to 21,150 in 2019. This gave combined total of 103,200 cargo bikes sold in 2020. 

Germany manufactures and exports a significant number of bicycles, for example including the Focus, Kalkhoff and Canyon brands to Australia. Total exports rose 7.9% to 1.57 million units shipped in 2020. Within this total electric bike exports were up 15% to 610,000 units. 

A final interesting comparison, at 1.95 million ebikes sold in 2020, more ebikes were sold in Germany that electric cars were sold in all of Europe, which includes 44 countries and sold a total of 1.34 million electric cars during 2020. 

All data and most text for this story was first published in Cycle Industry News (UK)